Introduction
The 1880 presidential election was largely lacking in
substantive issues. The country had returned to the gold
standard (see "Money
Question" in Issues) in January 1879 with
minimal protest or disruption, and the economy was generally
good, after several years of depression in the mid-1870s. The
divisive issues of Reconstruction (see "Reconstruction"
in Issues) had faded from the national spotlight, and
civil service reform (see "Civil
Service Reform" in Issues) did not spark the
acrimonious rebellion that it would in 1884. The Republicans and
Democrats nominated moderates who did not inspire much
enthusiasm, but the strength of the party system (see "Parties
and Voting" in Campaigning) ensured that nearly 80%
of the electorate cast ballots in early November. The Democratic
party had recovered from its post-Civil War doldrums, so that
the presidential election of 1880 was one of the closest in
American history. Factional differences within each of the two
major parties were arguably of more importance than ideological
distinctions between the parties.

The Republican
Nomination
The Republicans were divided into three groups. The Stalwarts
were conservatives who opposed civil service reform, conversely
supported the patronage system, favored protectionist tariffs,
and endorsed a third-term for former president Ulysses S. Grant.
The Reformers were liberals who advocated civil service reform
and free trade. The Half-Breeds were moderates who accepted some
degree of civil service reform, implemented piecemeal over time.
The Republican party in 1880 was divided into several factions.
The "Stalwart" faction was originally so-named because they were
firm in their opposition to the Southern policy of Republican
President Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), which accommodated
the final end of Reconstruction. During the Hayes
administration, Stalwarts included Senators James Blaine of
Maine, Roscoe Conkling of New York, both of whom lost the
Republican nomination to Hayes in 1876, and John Logan of
Illinois, among others. The Stalwarts also became known for
their opposition to civil service reform and other reform
efforts of the liberal wing of the party.

In 1880, many of the Stalwarts, led by Senators Conkling, Logan, and Don Cameron
of Pennsylvania, supported former president Ulysses S. Grant's unsuccessful bid
for a (non-consecutive) third term. Their support was strong in the South, where
Republicans needed patronage to retain a political foothold in the
post-Reconstruction world of the Democratic "Solid South." Senator Blaine,
however, was Grant's leading rival for the nomination, until both lost to a
compromise candidate, Representative James Garfield of Ohio. Blaine came to
represent the dominant moderate wing of the Republican party, called
"Half-Breeds" by their opponents.

The Reformers (or Liberals or Independents) were the other major faction of the
Republican party. They supported civil
service reform, free-trade or a tariff for revenue only, and numerous other
political and social reforms. They often opposed the expansionist foreign policy
of Grant and (later) Blaine. Leading voices for the Reformers included Harper's
Weekly editor George William Curtis and Interior Secretary Carl Schurz.

President Rutherford B. Hayes, fulfilling his 1876 campaign pledge of serving
only one term, announced he would not seek the Republican nomination in 1880.
With Hayes out of the picture, the early leading contender was Grant, seeking a
third-term. Although his administration had been rife with corruption, the
heroism of his previous Civil War leadership and the favorable press coverage of
his post-presidential world tour sustained his popularity with many Americans.
Grant's candidacy was encouraged by Senators Roscoe Conkling of New York, John
Logan of Illinois, Donald Cameron of Pennsylvania, and other Stalwart
Republicans. Despite the former president's personal popularity, many
Republicans did not wish to see him renominated, and a stop-Grant movement
blossomed amid cries of "Caesarism." (i.e., hunger for power, even
dictatorship). In early 1880, several state conventions in the North began
throwing their support to other candidates.

The major rival to Grant was Senator James G. Blaine of Maine, a leader of the
moderate Half-Breed wing of the Republican party. Blaine was a smart,
articulate, and accomplished politician, whose charismatic personality brought
him wide support within the party, but whose reputation for corruption provoked
indignant opposition from the reform wing. To his later regret, he angered
Treasury Secretary John Sherman of Ohio, a fellow moderate and presidential
candidate, by lining up Ohio delegates for himself.

Despite Sherman's impressive record as senator and treasury secretary, he faced
several obstacles besides competition from Blaine. Although considered a
"spoilsman" by some, Sherman's endorsement of civil service reform seemed too
sincere for ardent patronage supporters. Also, he was rumored to be sympathetic
to the Catholic request for funding parochial schools partially with public
money; that was a dangerous position to hold on such a bitterly controversial
issue. Finally, he was a dull campaigner with no key interest-group backing.

Other candidates for the Republican nomination were: Senator George Edmunds of
Vermont, whose reputation for moral probity made him the choice of the
Republican reform wing; Senator William Windom of Minnesota; and Elihu Washburne
of Illinois, a former congressman and minister to France. Also mentioned but not
nominated was Hamilton Fish, who had been Grant's skillful secretary of state.
Working behind the scenes to promote his own candidacy in case of a deadlocked
convention was Representative (and Senator-elect) James Garfield of Ohio,
Sherman's campaign manager. (The latter circumstance was a striking indicator of
the rickety foundation of Sherman's candidacy.)

When the Republican National Convention convened in Chicago on June 2, nearly
two-thirds of the delegates were pledged to either Grant or Blaine, but securing
a majority (370) would prove impossible for either camp. Initial infighting over
convention rules and organization gave way within a few hours to triumph for the
moderate Half-Breeds. They headed the major committees, with Garfield
prominently in charge of the powerful Rules Committee. Garfield's intentional
late arrival at the convention allowed his clandestine campaign manager, Wharton
Barker, to arrange a "spontaneous" ovation; this ploy was repeated every time
the Ohio congressman entered the hall or addressed the assembly. Garfield
furthered his chances as a compromise candidate by giving an emotional
nominating speech for Sherman in which he pleaded for party unity, while barely
mentioning the treasury secretary.

Grant bested Blaine on the first ballot, 304 to 284, with Sherman a remote third
with 93, and the remaining 75 votes divided among the other nominated
candidates: Edmunds (34), Washburne (31), and Windom (10). Over the next 33
ballots, the vote tallies changed only marginally; Grant reached a high of 309,
Blaine a low of 275, and Sherman peaked on the 13th ballot at 120. In order to
keep Garfield's name before the convention, Barker persuaded a Pennsylvania
delegate to cast his vote for the Ohio congressman, beginning with the second
ballot. Barker also quietly convinced the chairmen of the Wisconsin and Indiana
delegations to throw their respective state's support to Garfield, in an effort
to prod a stampede toward his candidate.

The plan began to unfold on the 34th ballot, when Wisconsin cast all its votes
for Garfield, followed by Indiana on the next ballot. Sherman's men, angry at
Blaine's previous raid on the Ohio delegation, refused to support the senator
from Maine, but found Garfield acceptable. On the 36th ballot, the Grant bloc
held firm at 306, but the moderates and liberals joined forces behind Garfield
to sweep him to victory with a flood of 399 votes. It was just as Barker had
predicted. Senator Conkling, Grant's floor manager, moved to make the nomination
unanimous, then stormed out of the convention hall. Had Conkling, who hated
Garfield (and Blaine and Hayes and …), learned of Barker's scheming, the New
York senator would have done everything in his power to prevent the Ohio
congressman's nomination.

The Republican presidential nominee was a skilled parliamentarian, a gifted
speaker, and an intelligent, scholarly man, but he also had the reputation as an
unpredictable vacillator. Only 48 years old, Garfield had grown up the poor son
of a widowed mother to become a college graduate, lawyer, Union general,
congressman, and presidential nominee. Fittingly, his campaign biography was
written by Horatio Alger, the author of popular rags-to-riches children's
stories.

Garfield took charge of the vice-presidential nomination by selecting a
candidate himself, rather than following tradition and passively accepting the
convention's choice. The presidential nominee moved quickly to unify his divided
party by offering the vice presidency to Congressman Levi Morton of New York, a
Stalwart associate of Conkling's from a key electoral state. Morton declined on
the advice of the peevish Conkling, who believed the ticket would lose. Garfield
next offered the position to Chester Arthur, another leader of the New York
Stalwarts who had been removed from his position as Collector of the Port of New
York (the nation's most powerful and lucrative patronage position) by President
Hayes. Conkling urged his protégé to refuse the position, but Arthur accepted
it, infuriating New York's senior senator. Arthur easily captured the
vice-presidential nomination on the first ballot, 468 to 103 for Washburne.

The Republican platform was similar to the one in 1876. It called for a
protective tariff, veterans pensions, railroad and corporation grants, opposed
polygamy and unrestricted Chinese immigration, and waffled on the civil service
issue.